Tech: 2015 Mustang LED Light Upgrades

Bright Light

Lethal Performance adds a brighter shine to its new Mustang GT

By Steve Turner
Photos by Steve Turner and courtesy of Lethal Performance

There are many ways to mod your Mustang. Some things make it faster, while others enhance its looks. Often the most satisfying mods are those do-it-yourself upgrades that immediately bear the fruits of your labor. Let’s face it; if you can go out to the garage and quickly knock out some mods that offer an appreciable improvement, odds are it’s going to brighten your day.

As you can see by comparing the factory reverse bulb (left) and the Diode Dynamics replacement, it’s easy to see how different the construction of the LED bulb is from the traditional unit. Swapping the bulbs is a plug-and-play proposition. The only trick is the LED units are polarity-specific, so make sure you properly align the positive and negative prongs.

Speaking of brightening things, the latest Mustang is brimming with high-tech equipment, but when it comes to many of the lights that you use everyday, the technology on-board is still pretty mundane. The traditional bulbs use power less efficiently and they give off yellow glow, which is in contrast to the headlights and displays in the car.

To bring brighter, whiter interior and reverse lighting to its latest project—a 2015 Mustang GT—Lethal Performance turned to Diode Dynamics for a full suite of its plug-and-play LED bulb upgrades for the S550.

“We chose to install the Diode Dynamics bulbs on our car because they look much better than the factory ones,” Jared Rosen of Lethal Performance said. “They also follow the theme that Ford chose to go with for the headlamps, taillights and galloping-pony puddle lamps. The factory conventional bulbs have a yellow hue to them where the LED emits a nice clean white light.”

As great as the improvement in lighting is, what’s even cooler is just how easily you can upgrade your new Mustang with these bulbs.

Jared got started by swapping the map lights. This housing just pops out of the headliner. From there it’s easy to swap the bulbs. Here is a great illustration of the difference between the bright white of the Diode Dynamics bulb (left) and the yellow hue of the stock unit.

“The Diode Dynamic LEDs are direct replacements for the factory bulbs. There’s no wiring, cutting or soldering needed. You simply remove the factory bulb and replace it with the Diode Dynamics one and you’re done,” Jared explained. “The most important thing when doing the install is to know that LEDs are polarity sensitive. That means that the bulb has to be installed the correct way in its socket to work. Test each bulb to make sure it’s lit before reinstalling the dome light/vanity light housing so that you don’t have to take it apart again to flip the bulb the correct way.”

Not that people really use maps anymore, but it should be much easier to see whatever you are looking at inside your Mustang with these bright white map lights.

Of course, it stands to reason that the bulbs are a good fit for the latest Mustang, because the company that manufactures them has a Mustang project of its own.

“We’ve been following the progress of the manufacturers releasing products for the all new mustang and saw that Diode Dynamics was on top of their game,” Jared added. “They have their own EcoBoost ’Stang in-house, which they’ve done all of their testing on so we know we’re going to get stuff that fits and works. That’s a much better route to go rather than playing the guessing game with some other brand that hasn’t done any R&D with this specific model.”

To further take the guesswork out of this upgrade, we followed along as Jared upgraded the Lethal Performance 2015 Mustang GT.

After dislodging the mount for the glovebox bulb, Jared swaps the single stock bulb for the new LED unit.With the new bulb in place and the mount back at home, this is what the glovebox looks like with a brighter light.Underneath the package tray is the trunk light housing. Jared popped it out and swapped in the Diode Dynamics bulb.Here’s a look at the trunk light reinstalled with the new bulb. That brightness will come in handy if you are rummaging around the trunk looking for that nitrous valve at night…In the daylight, the stock reverse light looks pretty weak with its faint yellow glow.Jared removed the stock assembly from the back of the reverse light housing and installed the new bulb. Then he reinstalled the socket in the housing.Even in the daylight, it’s clear the Diode Dynamics bulb offers a cleaner, brighter light. It will also nicely match the factory LED taillights.Installing bulbs in the vanity mirror requires a bit of disassembly. Just pop off the plastic lens, unscrew the cover, and you can access the bulbs.As with all the other locations, the LED bulbs deliver bright white light to the vanity mirror, which will be appreciated by anyone admiring themselves in the car.